Parenting is a high-wire act, especially when it comes to kids and cyber security. You want to respect teens' growing need for privacy, but as a parent, need access to all information in case of an emergency. One solution? Let an old-fashioned piggy bank maintain the trust.

In a tangent from an article on password sharing, Microsoft researcher Danah Boyd suggests this strategy:

Parents ask children to put passwords into a piggy bank that must be broken for the paper with the password to be retrieved. Such parents often explain that they don't want to access their teens' accounts, but they want to have the ability to do so "in case of emergency." A piggy bank allows a social contract to take a physical form.

This seems a much better strategy than demanding a teen to fork over his or her passwords. If you've faced this dilemma before or have your own thoughts on parenting and kids' passwords, share them with us in the comments. Photo by S_L / Shutterstock